A few weeks ago I took an ecoprint workshop from Marta Reimer at Manor Mill in Monkton. Through the years I have experimented with ecoprinting, but I wanted a refresher and I met Marta in a workshop that I taught and loved her prints that she had brought in to experiment with encaustic.
This image is of the paper print and the resulting cloth print from the workshop. I really love the cloth print actually, but have yet to figure out what I want to do with it. But I knew right away that I wanted to make a book art piece using the paper print.
I created an accordion book with bark covers. It is still a work in progress as I would like to keep working on it. The working title I gave the book for now is Impressions. Here are some photos:
I ended up adding encaustic, stitched fabric, paper and an inkjet print on rice paper to some of the pages. I definitely want to add more stitched and other bits.
I’m excited about how this turned out and am looking forward to creating more prints and figuring out ways to incorporate them into my work. This next few weeks I will be working on earthy book and earthy art. I have my Dialogue with the Earth 4 day retreat coming up in Washington (full, hurrah!) and want and need to get into that mindset as I prepare for the trip out west.
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. – Rachel Carson
I have always loved making these earthy books, whether they are meant to sit inside or installed out in the woods. Combining nature with the book form brings two of my obsessions together. It feeds my curiosity as well as pushes me to think about why I am endlessly obsessed with bringing them together. I think often about how nature can be read and can convey so much information. There are people- scientists, environmentalists, naturalists, hunters, farmers who still carry this knowledge. But so many of us do not have this skill anymore. I can’t help to think though that we feel this loss on a cellular level.
Working in book form is always fun for me. It uses a different part of my brain where I have to plan things out a bit more and think about how I will build and contruct it. And the book form contains so much meaning just in its structure alone.
I have been told that when people see my book out in the woods and along trails, they feel like they have come upon something magical or even reverent. I love the wonder that is created for people who come upon them. I think it awakens that inner child wonder, that small self that believed in fairy tales and secret doorways into other world found the hollows of tree trunks.
Or maybe that’s just me.
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web. -Pablo Picasso
Yes, I really adore the combination of all those best things— art, books, nature. Those parts add up to something greater! I’m so envious of the people in your workshop coming up— maybe someday I’ll get to see you and create with you again! Until then, you always inspire—thank you!